'tatUE NEGROES. 353 



I found that they were lodgings, also, for certain incon- 

 venient bedfellows. 



27th. — Five hours' ride through a pleasant country of 

 forest and meadow like those of Iyoncla, brought us ,to a 

 village of Basongo, a tribe living in subjection to the 

 Portuguese. We crossed several little streams, which 

 were flowing in the westerly direction in which we were 

 marching, and unite to form the Quize, a feeder of the 

 Coanza. The Basongo were very civil, as indeed all the 

 tribes were who had been conquered by the Portuguese. 

 The Basongo and Bangala are yet only partially subdued. 

 The farther west we go from this, the less independent we 

 find the black population, until we reach the vicinity of 

 Loanda, where trie free natives are nearly identical in 

 their feelings towards the government with the slaves. 

 But the governors of Angola wisely accept the limited 

 allegiance and tribute rendered by the more distant tribes 

 as better than none. 



All the inhabitants of this region, as well as those of 

 Londa, may be called true negroes, if the limitations 

 formerly made be borne in mind. The dark colour, thick 

 lips, heads elongated backwards and upwards, and covered 

 with wool, flat noses, with other negro peculiarities, are 

 general ; but while these characteristics place them in the 

 true negro family, the reader would imbibe a wrong idea 

 if he supposed that all these features combined are often 

 met with in one individual. All have a certain thickness 

 and prominence of Up, but many are met with in every 

 village, in whom thickness and projection are not more 

 marked than in Europeans. All are dark, but the colour 

 is shaded off in different individuals from deep black to 

 light yellow. As we go westward, we observe the light 

 colour predominating over the dark, and then again, when 

 we come within the influence of damp from the sea air, we 

 find the shade deepen into the general blackness of the 

 coast population. The shape of the head, with its woolly 

 crop, though general, is not universal. The tribes on the 

 eastern side of the continent, as the Caffres, have heads 

 finely developed and strongly European. Instances of 

 this kind are frequently seen, and after I became so 

 familiar with the dark colour as to forget it in viewing the 

 countenance, I was struck by the strong resemblance 

 some natives bore to certain of our own notabilities. The 

 Bushmen and Hottentots are exceptions to these remarks, 



2 A 



